One of the most annoying things that can happen to your computer, especially those who install and uninstall programs and applications all the time, is a drastic slowdown in overall system performance.In most cases the manager is the system diski.e. the disk where Windows is installed: if it is not optimized and cleaned regularly, the slowdowns will gradually become more frequent, both in the case of using an SSD and in the case of using an old mechanical disk (subject to very frequent fragmentation).
In the following guide we will show you how to defragment and clean the disk in a completely automatic wayusing the tools available on Windows and some programs designed for the purpose.
Guidance can be applied both on PCs equipped with SSDs and on computers equipped with mechanical hard drives: both need to be optimized, even if they use different techniques to achieve the goal (TRIM for SSDs and defragmentation for HDDs).
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1) Optimize SSD
To optimize an SSD or a NVMe M.2 memory all we have to do is open the Windows Start menu, type Defrag and optimize drivesopen the application of the same name, select the SSD or M.2 disk in the list and press the button at the bottom Optimize. This will start TRIM, a procedure that frees the disk cells and speeds up the writing of new files on the file system.
To automate the TRIM on Windows, press the button in the same window as before Change settings (under section Optimization planned), we tick the entry Run on a schedulewe set the desired frequency in the drop-down menu (we advise you to set Every week), click on Choose, set the SSD or M.2 disk, press OK and OK again for the changes to take effect.
Before closing the window, we advise you to check the item as well Raises the priority of the task in case of three failed scheduled runs, so that TRIM can be applied as soon as possible; to avoid this scenario, just leave the PC on without doing anything for at least 15 minutes a week, so as to give the tool time to TRIM the disks.
2) Deframmentare HDD
If we have mechanical disks on the PC (even secondary ones, where we only save the files) we will instead have to proceed with the defragmentationa process that rearranges stored files to bring them together and transform them into single blocks, speeding up reading and writing.
The procedure is very similar to that seen for SSDs: let’s open Defrag and optimize drives from the Start menu, select the mechanical disks present, first press on Analyze to check the level of fragmentation then press on Optimize to start the procedure (which could take even more than half an hour).
The procedure can also be performed on USB external disks: let’s connect them to the computer via USB, start Defrag and optimize driveswe tick the external disks and use the Analyze and Optimize keys to carry out the defragmentation.
Again we can schedule defragmentation of mechanical disks present on the PC, as seen in the previous chapter, with the difference that we will have to leave the PC on and unused for at least one hour a week.
To learn more, we can read our guide on how to keep the computer awake and with the screen on.
3) Free up space automatically
On Windows 11 and Windows 10 we can take advantage Memory sensor to automatically free the space occupied by files, programs and cache, without having to use an external program for cleaning the disk.
To set memory sensor we pressed WIN+I on the keyboard, let’s go to the menu Systemclick on Storage and tick the switch next to the entry Memory sensor; by pressing the Memory Sensor menu we will have access to the sensor settings, so as to be able to choose when to free the Windows recycle bin, which types of folders to clean and after when to delete the files in the folder Download.
On the memory sensor we can read our guides on how to get free space in windows 10 and 11 by turning on “Memory Sense” come on what can you delete from windows to free up space.
4) Programs to optimize and clean the disk
In addition to the tools built into Windows we can use programmi come CCleaner to clean up the disk and eliminate all useless files, thus freeing up the space needed to keep new files and new programs.
Other good programs to free up disk space are Wise Disk Cleaner e Moo0 Disk Cleanerboth very easy to use on any PC.
As an alternative to the programs already mentioned we can try IOBit Smart Defragable to play a intelligent full hard drive defragmentationmoving your most used files automatically as you use them, so your computer can access them faster.
If instead we are looking for a complete free program to optimize and defragment we can rely on Auslogic Disk Defragwhich has the double function of defragment and optimize a hard disk. AusLogic Disk Defrag allows you to automate the defragmentation procedure with an automatic weekly or monthly schedule.
Another effective method to make a disk efficient is to uninstall unused programs: for this purpose we can use programs like Revo Uninstallerwhich do complete removal and clean uninstall of any installed application.
Other excellent programs to defragment a hard disk I am Disk Speed Up (The Glary Soft) e Puran defragabsolutely reliable with all the functions for scheduling operations and optimizing the disks in the computer.
Conclusions
After performing these operations we will certainly have an increase in general performanceespecially if we have been using a non-optimized SSD disk for many months or a mechanical disk with many files saved in the last period.
Very important in this case is the planning of optimization and cleaning operationswhich can make the difference between a slow and clumsy PC and an always fast and snappy computer.
To clean up the autostart menu and remove programs from Windows start-up you can refer to the article about how to disable programs that start together with windows.
In another article we have already described the best programs to defrag hard drive.
